They're #1:Despite lower prices and smaller venues

For the last three months, the DMB tour is #1 in North America– and they did it with tickets averaging under $36 each. So says Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni, who contrasts DMB tix with averages of $68 for Cher, $43 for Creed, and $90 for the Eagles.

"They're doing it by not gouging the consumer," says Bongiovanni. The band, playing in arenas instead of stadiums this summer, grossed an average of $1.2 million per city, says Bongiovanni.

The tour's over, but the show goes on

DMB wound up its Spring/Summer 2002 tour on September 8 with a three-night stand at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. The band "played their hearts out," according to the DMB Road Crew's tour diary on the official website, during the string of shows that have become DMB's traditional tour-closing venue/event.

While the tour is over, the show goes on, at least for Matthews, who joined a bevy of stars for a solo set on September 21 at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert, held this year in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

November release date set for new live CD/DVD

Now comes word from the band's site that DMB's latest live album, Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado, is set for a November 5 release.

The two-CD set and DVD erroneously referred to here and elsewhere as Open Up The Curtains were recorded and filmed on July 11, 2001. The band's site is offering a pre-order special for $20, or $40 for the CD/DVD combo. DMB's last live album, Live in Chicago 12.19.98, was the best-selling live album of 2001.

DMB's latest live album, Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado, a double CD and DVD, will be released November 5.

Double (platinum) Stuff

As of September 21, after eight weeks on the Billboard charts, the latest studio album, Busted Stuff, is still holding its own at No. 16. The album, which spent only one week at No. 1 following its July 16 debut, has already passed the double platinum mark with more than two million units sold.

Words to live by

The Right Words at the Right Time sounds as if it were a DMB album or song, but the phrase is the title of the best-selling compilation of inspirational anecdotes gathered by actress Marlo Thomas of 1960s That Girl fame. Dave Matthews is among more than 100 luminaries who contributed remembrances of events in which words changed their lives. In his entry, Matthews recalls a family dinner of his youth at which he was deliberately disrupting the meal by singing off-key. Instead of a scolding, Matthews' father employed some reverse psychology, remarking to Dave's mother: "Look, he sings so well he can sing off-key."

The ploy filled the pre-teen Matthews with enough pride to cease his antics. "My father lifted me and humbled me at the same time," writes Matthews. Since his father's death, Matthews recalls the moment when he becomes discouraged or when he requires an ego check.

"When I need a boost, I remember the first part," Matthews writes. "When I need a reminder that family dinners are more important than record deals, I remember the second."

DAVE'S INSPIRATION: Matthews is among more than 100 celebrities who contributed accounts of times when words changed their lives for Marlo Thomas' best-selling book, The Right Words at the Right Time.

DMB-TV: On the air again

Hard on the heels of his appearance at Farm Aid, Dave will appear with Willie Nelson yet again, this time as part of a coterie of Nelson's musical admirers for the PBS program American Masters. In the documentary, "Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving," Matthews joins other musicians and performers paying homage to the country music legend. Many of Nelson's best-known songs act as bridges between scenes of the performer at home, on his tour bus, and on stage and hobnobbing with fellow musicians such as Matthews. The program is scheduled to air on Wednesday, October 2, at 9pm EDT.

Musictoday selling Stones

As reported in a recent Boston Globe article, Musictoday.com, the Charlottesville-base website created by DMB manager Coran Capshaw, is increasing its presence as a ticket broker for acts other than DMB. With fans increasingly turning to the ease of the Internet for tickets to top shows such as the current Rolling Stones tour (with which the site has an exclusive deal), fans are also paying top dollar for tickets.

Gerald Bonchack did just that, coughing up more than $3,000 for a pair of tickets to each of the Stones' Boston shows. As inflated as some online tickets appear, Musictoday executive Andrew Snowhite told the Globe the company is not simply selling a ticket.

"We're selling the ultimate live music experience," Snowhite told the paper.

Capshaw and other band managers drew the ire of ticket kingpin TicketMaster this summer when the latter discovered that members of fan clubs such as DMB's Warehouse purchased as many as 50 percent of tickets for any given show though online fan clubs. TicketMaster issued a stern warning to managers and venues that fan clubs should limit ticket sales to no more than eight percent of tickets sold for any concert.

With Capshaw's Musictoday appears to be thumbing its nose at TicketMaster, possibly upsetting an exclusive agreement between Clear Channel Entertainment (DMB's concert promoters) and the concert ticket giant

DMB chokes at charity softball game

They may have rocked the Sandstone Amphitheatre in Bonner Springs, Kansas, on September 3, but the band was trounced a day earlier during a Labor Day charity softball game against Kansas City radio station KMXV-FM, whose catcher was Nancies.org member Jody Quintanar.

Quintanar, of Temecula, California, was the high bidder in a contest to join the station's team and have dinner with Dave after the game. Including Quintanar's $2,000 bid, the event raised $7,500 for the local police and fire fund.

"Dave is not real good at softball, but he made everyone laugh," says Quintanar. Quintanar's account of the game and his dinner with an allegedly wine-loving Matthews make for amusing reading on the Nancies.org site. Final score: KMXV 32, DMB 16.